Media Liability Insurance

Your agency uses copyrighted material in a way that goes against an exclusive right of the copyright owner, such as reproducing or performing the work, or creating later material that uses the original copyrighted work as a building block; piracy is commonly used to identify copyright infringement within the realm of audio-visual media; the basic purpose of a copyright is to limit the way a particular kind of information can be expressed; examples of such information includes literature, music, software, paintings, and live performances.

Claim example — In the course of producing a television spot for a client, members of your production department put together an original music composition that will run behind the announcer’s voice over. After the campaign has finished, you are notified that an influential music group is suing your agency for the use of the composition — even though it only contains a handful of notes that are similar to one of their songs.

Your agency makes some mistakes in the process of performing a service for someone else that result in bodily injury, property damage or financial loss.

Claim example — Your agency’s client, which manufactures dishwashers and other related consumer durables, approves your media department’s plan to buy space in a range of national cable networks. As a result of a mistake in placing the purchases, however, the advertisements fail to appear on a number of the planned networks. The client swiftly sues for errors and omissions, claiming that your agency’s slip had diminished their profitability.

Your agency publishes an uncomplimentary verbal or visual portrayal of a person as something that he or she is not. In contrast to libel claims, in which the victim’s reputation must be damaged, false light only requires the individual to be deeply offended by the agency’s actions.

Claim example — One of your account teams has had a long-standing relationship with a fashion industry client, and they are currently working on a national clothing line campaign. The client has always felt that strong imagery is an important way to grab attention, and their in-house promotion department has provided footage to use in a number of television spots. Several members of your agency believe that the footage takes a couple steps over the decency line, but the client is adamant that the executions will work. And while they do manage to stir up publicity, your agency is besieged with a multitude of lawsuits claiming false light through extreme sexist ad content.

Your agency’s actions result in a person’s extreme emotional distress, regardless of whether or not the actions were legal.

Claim example — Several years ago, your agency’s executives had denied a request for a software upgrade for the print production department. This decision did not go over well with production, but things seemed to return to normal shortly afterwards. Yesterday, however, one of the junior members of the department sued your firm for infliction of emotional distress. Allegedly, the production department had pirated the software that they were previously denied, and had continued to collect illegitimate software since. The junior member, who felt that the agency’s reputation was at stake, had tried to blow the whistle on the employees engaging in the piracy, but had been intimidated and threatened into silence.

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Your agency exposes someone to unwanted publicity and, by doing so, causing them stress that a “reasonable person” should not be expected to withstand.

Claim example — Based on insistent suggestions from your client, a candidate for a local government office, you produce a series of advertisements for local cable that focus on testimonials from an actual member of the voting community. Only after running the advertisements is it discovered that some footage accidentally reveals the testifying consumer’s home address. Several weeks later, you receive notice that the individual portrayed in the campaign is suing for intrusion because members supporting an opposing candidate saw the address and continuously sent hostile letters to her.

Your agency is responsible for the defamation of someone’s reputation through statements of false information. Libel occurs when this act is communicated in writing, and slander is the spoken word variant.

Claim example — An animal rights organization hires your agency to plan a guerilla marketing campaign. One of the plan’s components consists of “street teams” in several large cities that attempt to raise public awareness of your client’s views. During the campaign’s execution, the street teams in one of the cities divert from the planned script and criticize a specific fur coat manufacturer. This event makes the news, and the coat manufacturer soon files a lawsuit against you for slander.

Your agency makes use of another person’s or organization’s possessions for your own purposes, without consent and for financial gain. Unlike the specificity of names and their likenesses, the nature of an “idea” is highly ambiguous, and this fact alone makes it almost impossible for a firm to know when they are at risk for a potentially devastating misappropriation claim. In addition, proof of true idea ownership is often implied through conversation rather than set in writing, which makes it even harder to deal with.

Claim example — A peanut manufacturer asks your agency to design some print advertisements that connect their brand to the sport of baseball, and the final layouts include illustrations of baseball players in action. Some time after the campaign released in the target markets, a professional baseball player sues for misappropriation of likeness. He alleges that one of the illustrated players was a depiction of him and that it was dishonestly used to profit the peanut manufacturer.

Your agency uses someone else’s work without acknowledging the creator as the original source. Also, the subject attempting plagiarism must attempt to present the recycled work as completely original. It is important to note that plagiarism is not necessarily synonymous with copyright infringement.

Claim example — Representatives from your client’s brand are very active in their supervisory roles and inspire several ideas for the account’s creative team. However, when the campaign is implemented nationwide, your firm is sued for plagiarism by a rival advertising agency. They contend that the creative ideas used by your agency are owned and were originally put forth by their presentation team during the account review one year ago.

Your agency publicly releases untrue and damaging statements that discredit someone else’s product.

Claim example — Working for a small paper manufacturer, your agency produces print advertisements to be placed in several trade publications. For the advertisements’ executions, your firm believes it will be effective to compare the quality of the paper to that of the manufacturer’s main competitor. The competitor later files a lawsuit for product disparagement, stating that the arguments favoring your client’s brand were not based on fact.

Your agency offends someone by revealing personal information about him or her at a time when doing so is not in the public’s interest.

Claim example — Your agency writes several press releases for a client who has developed a notable advancement in the removal of parasites from domestic animals. Part of the strategy for the press releases, which were sent to local and regional publishers and broadcasters, was highlighting the unique background of the client’s founder. However, the client sues for public disclosure after the press releases are used by the media because they infer inappropriate personal information about her.

These three types of infringement are similar to copyright infringement in that they would involve your agency’s unauthorized use of protected intellectual property, but here the properties in question are defined more precisely. “Title” refers to the name that identifies a piece of literature, musical composition, or other type of work; “trademark” is an officially registered name, symbol, or other device that identifies a product; and “slogan” describes a distinctive phrase, motto, catch word or catch phrase.

Claim example — Following the success of a campaign that utilized a character spokesperson in various media and promotional situations, a popular television show host files a slogan infringement lawsuit against you. He states that your character’s catch phrase and way of speaking had been paraphrased by his own, and that the campaign owed its positive results to his existing celebrity status.

Your agency performs its business duties in illegal, fraudulent, or otherwise dishonest ways.

Claim example — A recently established diet pill manufacturer hires your agency after the account review and provides product information necessary to develop a national campaign. Surprisingly, it is later proven by a consumer organization that the advertising claims based on the product information were false, and allow for an unfair competition lawsuit against your agency.